Samsung slapped with lawsuit over alleged patent infringement

Signage is seen at the Samsung 837 store in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 10, 2016.
Reuters/Andrew Kelly

A research firm specialising in encryption technology has slapped a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics due to patent infringement. The suit had been filed on April 6 at the Texas Eastern District Court.

According to the lawsuit, Samsung has allegedly infringed upon three of PACid Technologies’ patents. The technology, as the complaint states, involved an assortment of biometric security devices that were used in Samsung’s Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8 devices, as well as the Edge variants. The patents were reportedly utilised to develop fingerprint, face and iris scanning features.

Although PACid does not specify an exact amount of damages, the technology firm is claiming that it “has suffered monetary damages,” according to legal documents, courtesy of SlashGear.

This isn’t the first time Samsung finds itself in a patent war. It took the company years of court battle before it lost in 2017 against Apple for reportedly infringing on the latter’s slide-to-unlock patent. The court had asked Samsung to pay the iPhone maker a sum of US$120 million.

As for PACid’s recent complaint against Samsung, the producer of the Galaxy devices is said to have received a court summons on April 10. It is yet to issue a formal statement regarding the matter.

PACid Technologies describes itself as “a pioneer encryption technology research firm.” On its website, it acknowledges that “large companies” refers to PACid as a patent troll.

“They call us names because they prefer to steal our ideas than pay for them,” the company says on its website in a section under About Patents and Inventing.